The invention relates to a completely-soluble solid particle based on soluble dietary fibre(s) and at least one active substance particularly for a dietetic, cosmetic or pharmaceutical purpose.
In general, the particles of the invention may comprise any type of active substance, and preferably substances of plant origin, particularly in the form of a plant extract or part of a plant. In the rest of the description, the invention is more particularly described in relation to the use of aromas as the active substance. In the context of the invention, “aroma” here means any product or substance designed to be added to foods to give them an odour, a taste, or both. Among the aromas, a distinction is made between natural aromatizing substances, aromatizing substances identical to natural aromatizing substances, artificial aromatizing substances, aromatizing preparations, processed aromas and smoke aromas.
A natural aromatizing substance is a chemically defined substance which is obtained either by appropriate physical methods, including distillation and solvent extraction, or by enzymatic or microbiological methods, from a material of plant or animal origin, taken as such or after its processing for human consumption by conventional food preparation methods, including drying, roasting and fermentation. This category particularly includes essential oils and pure aromas.
An aromatizing substance identical to a natural aromatizing substance is a defined chemical substance which is chemically identical to a natural aromatizing substance after having been obtained by chemical synthesis or isolated by chemical methods.
An artificial aromatizing substance is a defined chemical substance which, having been obtained by chemical synthesis, is not chemically identical to a natural aromatizing substance.
An aromatizing preparation is a product, other than a natural aromatizing substance, concentrated or not, which is obtained by appropriate physical methods, including distillation and solvent extraction, or by enzymatic or microbiological methods, from a material of plant or animal origin, taken as such or after its processing for human consumption by conventional food preparation methods, including drying, roasting and fermentation.
A processed aroma is a product obtained by heating to a temperature not exceeding 180° C. for a period not exceeding 15 minutes of a mixture of ingredients which have aromatizing properties or not, provided that the components of the mixture comprise at east one ingredient containing nitrogen and at least one ingredient serving as a reducing sugar.
A smoke aroma is a smoke extract which is used in conventional food smoking methods.
All of these products have a specific analytical profile which can be characterized particularly by gas chromatography, and which it is necessary to restore as much as possible in the particle of the invention.
In the description and the claims, the expression “soluble dietary fibres” means any compound of completely-water-soluble plant cells, withstanding the various enzymatic hydrolyses occurring during a physiological process of digestion. More precisely, the enzymes of the organism abundantly present in the small intestine, such as sucrase-maltase, have no hydrolytic action on the bonds of the units forming the fibres, thereby causing no increase in glycemia, and in the rate of insulin in the blood. These fibres are composed of cellulose, hemicellulose, oligosaccharides, pectin, gums, waxes, these various compounds are those taken into account in the analyses of dietary fibres. Soluble fibres should be distinguished from sugars or sugar derivatives, such as for example sucrose, glucose, lactose, maltodextrin, etc., which are rapid or slow directly assimilable sugars.
According to the invention, the dietary fibres consist of a completely-water-soluble polymer selected particularly from the group comprising inulin, oligofructoses (also called fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS)), gum arabic, used alone or in mixtures.
a known manner, inulin is a mixture of oligomers and polymers of fructose, obtained by extraction particularly from chicory roots. The structure of inulin can be represented by the formula GFn, in which:
G=glycosyl unit,
F=fructosyl unit,
n=number of bound fructosyl units (n>2),
DP=degree of polymerization varying between 2 and 60,
bond of the β(1-2) type.
In practice, inulin consists of some 60 fructose units.
Fructo-oligosaccharides correspond to a mixture of oligomers and polymers of fructose obtained by inulin hydrolysis.
The FOS structure can be represented by the formula GFn or Fm, in which:
G=glycosyl unit,
F=fructosyl unit,
N and m=number of the bound fructosyl units (n>2),
DP=degree of polymerization varying between 2 and 20,
bond of the β(1-2) type.
In practice, FOS consist of 10 fructose units.
Document WO 99/06028 describes a method for producing granules from dietary fibres like those of the present invention. More precisely, the dietary fibres are in atomized form and are contacted with an extract of active ingredient, for example essential oils, in a solvent medium and in the absence of binder, before a final oven drying step, to remove the solvent. In this method, a porous atomized support with a high specific surface area is used, in order to impregnate the maximum of extract at the surface and in the pores of the structure. The absence of binder makes it possible to recover, at the end of the method, as many atomized particles as existed initially. Furthermore, it is stipulated that the solvent must be selected so that it is incapable of solubilizing the dietary fibres. It therefore follows that the structure of the dietary fibres is unchanged during the method. The granules obtained, 1 mm in size, have mechanical properties, particularly hardness, incompatible with a subsequent calibration operation. In fact, the granules cannot be reduced in size without causing a high loss of material, due to their high friability.
Document WO 01/17372 describes a method for producing granules based on aromas and maltodextrin. This technique consists in solubilizing the aroma in water, then in wetting the maltodextrin with the solution obtained to form a paste. In the absence of water, the pasty state is impossible to obtain. The paste is then heated to a temperature of 90 to 130° C. to evaporate the water and hence harden. The paste is then extruded and calibrated. The drawback of this method is the need for high temperatures and pressures (between 1 and 50 bar) which, added to the necessary presence of water, completely modify the chromatographic profile of the aromas. Moreover, due to the presence of water, only water-soluble hence hydrophilic active ingredients are employed.
Document FR-A-2 294 653 describes porous grains obtained by placing a mixture under vacuum comprising an assimilable maltodextrin.
Documents WO 03/092912, EP-A-112 660, WO 00/25606, WO 01/17372 and WO 02/65858 describe solid particles, comprising assimilable maltodextrins. Furthermore, nothing is said concerning the maintenance of the aromatic profile of the basic aroma after extrusion.
Document WO 01/143568 describes granules obtained by the extrusion of a 10 mixture of inulin and sugar, particularly accsulfame K. No reference is made to the possible combination of inulin with an aroma and hence to the problem of the aromatic profile of the aroma obtained after extrusion.
The problem which the invention proposes to solve is hence to develop a method for preparing completely-soluble granules, based particularly on aromas, in which the aromatic profile of the said aromas is unchanged from the original profile. At the same time, the objective is to have granules which are then suitable for calibration and conditioning without loss of material.